A large number of electronic appliances have been reduced in size as well as in weight, while a circuit board constituting the electronic appliance has been more and more highly integrated and mounted at a higher density. On such a circuit board, components are mounted by the above-mentioned component mounting apparatus or component mounting line.
This component mounting line is a type of production line for automatically mounting components on a circuit board. An example of the production line is constituted by: a board supplying device for supplying circuit boards in a one-by-one manner; a cream solder printer for printing a cream solder onto the circuit board; a cream solder print inspection machine for inspecting a state of the printed cream solder; an applicator for applying an adhesive for adhering components onto the board; a high-speed placement machine for placing the components onto the circuit board at high speed; a multifunctional placement machine for placing various kinds of components including an odd-shaped component onto the circuit board; a placed component inspection machine for inspecting a missing component or a positional offset of a component on the circuit board after placement of the components; a reflow device for melting the cream solder so as to solder an electrode of the component and a land on the circuit board to each other to obtain a mounted state of the components; a visual inspection machine for visually inspecting a state of soldering, a placed state of the component or the like; and a board housing device for housing the mounted circuit board therein. A plurality of types of these production facilities are connected in series to each other. Circuit boards sequentially pass through these devices in a one-by-one manner so as to achieve the mount production.
Moreover, depending on the kind of electronic component, equipment in other forms such as a component insertion machine for inserting a radial lead, an axial lead, or a jumper wire, a component mounting apparatus for achieving the mounting with a joint between metals by friction, diffusion due to friction, or fusion can be used for fabricating a circuit board.
In component mounting apparatus manufacturers supplying a component mounting apparatus or a component mounting line as described above, the destination of delivery of a component mounting apparatus or a component mounting line has been expanded not only on a domestic scale but also on a global scale. In this context, a conventional servicing status while the component mounting apparatus is running upon and after delivery to the destination of delivery is as follows.
When a component mounting apparatus or a component mounting line is to be delivered to the destination of delivery, an operation for installing the component mounting line and an adjustment operation for setting up the component mounting line are performed by an operator dispatched from a component mounting apparatus manufacturer. At this time, an instructor dispatched from the component mounting apparatus manufacturer describes the operation of the component mounting apparatus and offers the training for an operator of the apparatus at a factory of the destination of delivery, with reference to an instruction manual delivered along with the component mounting apparatus.
In a case where the component mounting apparatus is shut down due to a trouble, or quality defect of products, or the like occurs during production in the component mounting line after its delivery, the operator, who has received instructions for the operation and the training, analyses its cause at the factory of the destination of delivery so as to eliminate the trouble or the quality defect. In a case where the trouble or the quality defect still remains, the component mounting apparatus manufacturer is requested to dispatch a service person. The service person is asked to analyze the cause so as to eliminate the trouble or the quality defect of products.
Such a service will be specifically described, taking a component mounting apparatus 450 illustrated in FIG. 67 as an example. The component mounting apparatus 450 includes: a data storage section 451 for recording and storing operation information and error information of the component mounting apparatus for trouble recovery or maintenance; an output device 452 (a printer, a floppy disk drive, a display screen, or the like) for outputting the information stored in the data storage section 451; and a communication device 454 for outputting the information to an external personal computer 453 or the like. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 68, a service point 172 for repairing the trouble occurring in the component mounting apparatus 450 and performing maintenance for a customer factory 171 where the apparatus 450 is delivered to be operated is provided on the manufacturer side.
When a trouble occurs on the customer side, the trouble is conventionally recovered as in an example of a procedure shown in a flow chart of FIG. 69. First, in a case where a trouble occurs in the component mounting apparatus 450 present in the customer factory 171 (Step S601), an operator on the customer side outputs the contents of the trouble occurrence, for example, the operation information and the error information of the component mounting apparatus and the like, through the output device 452 of the component mounting apparatus 450 (Step S602). The output information is communicated to the service point 172 by using information transfer means such as a telephone, a facsimile, or the like (Step S603). Thereafter, a service person who has received the communication at the service point 172 receives the contents of the trouble (the operation information, the error information, and the like of the component mounting apparatus) so as to check if all data necessary for analysis have been completed (Step S604). In a case where all data have not been completed, the service person makes contact with the operator at the customer factory 171 again so as to collect the information. In a case where all data have been completed, the analysis is carried out (Step S605) so that the service person visits the customer to recover the trouble (Step S606).
The operation of the component mounting apparatus has been significantly complicated in these days with the diversification of circuit boards or components to be mounted and the corresponding sophistication of component mounting apparatuses. Accordingly, in spite of the service as described above, shutdown due to a trouble or quality defect of products is frequently caused by a faulty operation of the operator who operates a component mounting apparatus.
Moreover, the operators at the destinations of delivery of component mounting apparatuses have varied levels. From a global point of view, in particular, the operators at the destinations of delivery of apparatuses have infinitely varied levels for the respective zones of the world. Thus, the quality of component mount production is varied depending on the level of the operator. As a result, it becomes difficult to ensure the uniform quality over all factories at the destinations of delivery.
Particularly, it is difficult for the operator at the destination of delivery to learn know-how of component mounting, that is, to select a component mounting condition depending on the type of a circuit board or a component to be mounted. Nevertheless, the description of operation or the training for an operator at the time of delivery of the apparatus is normally made on the operation for a particular test circuit board. In many cases, the description or the training does not cover the learning of selection of a component mounting condition depending on the type of a circuit board or a component to be mounted. Thus, it takes considerable time for an operator at the destination of delivery to learn such know-how.
For example, an operator for operating the component mounting apparatus 450 is required to create NC data which is necessary for the component mounting apparatus to perform an operation for mounting components. For creation of such data, it is necessary to search and input a significant amount of information for an individual component to be mounted, as is illustrated in FIG. 23. Nonetheless, the utilization of a system for automatically creating NC data from a component database has an advantage in that it is no more necessary to perform any research and input for a component which is once used and registered in the component database. However, there may sometimes be a trial and error process during production to confirm if the input contents are really suitable or not. Moreover, the number of types of components to be mounted, used in the component mount industry, is estimated to be 100,000 or more in total. In the field of mounting such various kinds of components, the number of components to be newly mounted is hardly reduced in an actual condition. Thus, the contents are likely to be misinput upon creation of NC data. An error in the input contents leads to a trouble of a component mounting apparatus or quality defect of products. What is worse, as the workload of creating the NC data is increased to be enormous, there is an increased possibility that the misinput might occur.
In addition to this, the workload is similarly high in teaching of component recognition data, setting of a squeegee operating condition in screen printing of a cream solder, setting of a heating temperature profile in a reflow device, and the like, which results in an increased possibility that the misinput might occur.
In a case where the shutdown of a component mounting apparatus caused by a trouble or quality defect of products occurs due to a faulty operation by the operator, the support is hardly provided in a timely manner under a servicing condition as conventional. In many cases, it is only after the analysis of the cause by a service person dispatched from a component mounting apparatus manufacturer that the cause of the trouble is proved to be a faulty operation. In some cases, it is even after several days' stay of the service person at the mounting field for grasping the phenomenon that the cause is found. Consequently, it takes several days to recover a component mounting line, resulting in a considerable amount of production loss or quality loss.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a component mounting apparatus, a service providing device, and a servicing method, in which a component mounting apparatus side can receive or be provided with a customer service related to production including the productivity and the quality maintenance from a manufacturer side supplying the component mounting apparatus or a service person side through all communications including the Internet according to the needs so as to facilitate the implementation of production.